Keeping Pace
by AnimeDawn
Summary: Sonic and Shadow were two different sides of the same coin. Both hedgehogs with conflicting personalities. Somehow, someway, it snaked its way into both of their lives and forced them to consider the impossible... or is it really? Oneshot, Sonadow after defeating the Biolizard


The wind whipped past Sonic's face, tearing at his body and rippling through his fur. He wasn't quite sure where exactly he was headed, but as that famous saying goes, "Part of the pleasure is not knowing." All he knew for sure was that the ground was steady beneath the soles of his shoes. Everything else was a blur – green, blue and brown surroundings passed in the blink of an eye. Was there a breeze, or was he the one creating the wind? This was also something of which he was uncertain. Nothing seemed to matter except the elusive feeling of freedom, which he was always chasing head-on despite the numerous challenges scattered before him. He was that which couldn't be tied down or restrained. His body fought with all of its strength to maintain a certain degree of speed, while his heart yearned for adventure – the next big thrill.

He ran for hours until all of a sudden time was standing still. Landscapes began to merge into one gigantic, flat plane of existence until there was nothing that could possibly stand in his way. His mentality was calm, almost meditative. The longer the strides he took, the more distance he covered. But that fact, too, was redundant. This run wasn't about how far in how long, he told himself, but about the journey in between destinations. Running cleared his head, allowed him to think about things that he normally had no time for. He assessed friendships, rivalries, relationships and more as his limbs moved in sync with his heartbeat. Memories were relived, and future events were contemplated. His thoughts eventually turned to a dark, brooding hedgehog with crimson eyes and a permanent frown. Shadow. His rival, the Ultimate Lifeform. What was he doing? Where might he be going? Was he thinking about him too...?

The last time Sonic had seen Shadow was during the battle aboard the Ark, when he was attempting to prevent the G.U.N. agent from exacting his revenge upon the unsuspecting people of Mobius. The Eclipse Cannon had the power to easily destroy billions of innocent lives along with a fair chunk of the planet, so failure wasn't an option. The battle was fierce, and in all honesty Sonic hadn't expected to be so outmatched by his rival. Luckily Rouge had turned the tides for him at the last possible moment, showing the Ultimate Lifeform the truth behind everything that he had so faithfully believed and shattering his desires to destroy Mobius. Deep in his heart Sonic was glad for this, but at the same time he felt oddly pained to see his rival in such agony. His emotions were so conflicted that he wasn't even sure if what he was feeling was real or simply adrenaline. Back then it was more prudent to push those thoughts aside, so he logged them away in his mind to examine later.

The real fight began when they both discovered that a gigantic, dinosaur-like alien monster had somehow fused itself to the Ark. In order to defeat the Biolizard, Sonic and Shadow had both used the seven Chaos emeralds to change into their super forms. Teaming up was the only way to stop the beast from dragging the Ark towards the planet and causing a disaster the likes of which no one could even remotely imagine. In the end the unlikely duo had saved the world together and even though Sonic had thought little of it at the time, there was something... _there _when he and Shadow used their powers to drive back the imminent threat of annihilation. There was some kind of feeling he had experienced then which he still found difficult to describe, even though two months had already passed since the Ark incident. He had no idea if Shadow was aware of it, but he sure as hell was. There wasn't a time when he didn't think about that fight, or those feelings that he had put aside so that he could save the world. Now that he was experiencing a lull in his hero routine, he had plenty of time to assess his feelings and think about the black hedgehog with red stripes that had utterly captivated him, body and soul. This, however, was also quite frustrating because he was starting to come to conclusions that he wasn't sure he cared to admit – even to himself.

It was raining outside, and Shadow couldn't seem to pull himself away from staring at the droplets that collided with his bedroom window. Storms were one of the many worldly fascinations of his. They held so much power, had the ability to destroy lives in an instant, and yet they held a unique kind of beauty that was often in the eye of the beholder. There hadn't been a single moment in time where lightning had struck and Shadow hadn't considered it to be beautiful. Even tsunamis, tornados and hurricanes had their own level of appeal to him. Maybe it interested him because he was equally as dangerous, equally as capable of destruction and death; but even though he did possess a certain potential for darkness, somehow that blue hedgehog had shown him that he also had the potential for heroism if he searched hard enough within himself.

Shadow frowned as he rested his chin upon his fist. The raindrops pelted the glass in a continuous rhythm, and in the distance a brilliant bolt of lightning streaked across the sky. That blue hedgehog was an enigma. It was difficult to comprehend what was going on inside that brain of his sometimes, but still Shadow had to admit that his uncanny interest in Sonic was well founded. Never before had he met someone with such extreme vigour and selflessness. The people of Mobius had apparently been rescued many times by the blue blur and he had asked for nothing in return. He had defeated Eggman just as many times as well, with each battle becoming more elaborate than the last. His sense of justice was right on the mark and he never deviated from any task, no matter how difficult or how risky. He was the ultimate champion of Mobius, and occasionally Shadow would find himself wondering how he managed it. But even though Sonic was a confusing subject and at times he wished for nothing more than to strangle him, Shadow was deeply fascinated with the inner workings of the blue hedgehog, and enjoyed studying him just as much as he hated dealing with his stubbornness. It was complicated, and if anyone asked him about it he didn't bother to acknowledge the comment. He didn't have the words nor the patience to explain anyway. If people really wanted to know why he cared so much about Sonic, they could come to their own feeble conclusions. He had never cared what other people thought about him since coming to Mobius, and he wasn't about to start now.

"Hey Shads, how're things?"

Shadow sighed, and glanced over to his right. Sonic was standing there, his fur coated in a thin sheen of rain, and a long trail of water was spread out behind him. He looked down at his shoes, and they were caked with mud, which was also tracked along his rug. A strange urge to laugh gripped him, but he frowned instead.

"Fine, considering you made an utter mess of my room. Again," he replied, standing up and walking over to the door. He pushed it shut with a sigh of resigned tolerance. "To what do I owe the pleasure, blue hedgehog?"

Sonic tossed himself into the nearest chair and shrugged one shoulder. Shadow watched as individual rivulets ran down his fur and onto his furniture. His eye twitched slightly.

"I was just in the neighborhood and decided to pay you a visit. Good to see you're still alive! I haven't heard from you in a while," Sonic replied, ringing out his quills over the edge of the armrest. Water dripped everywhere, and Shadow decided to go grab him a towel from the bathroom before he tossed Sonic through his window.

"I've been busy," he ground out, throwing a towel at Sonic's head. "I can assume you have been as well?"

"Naw. Actually, I've been kind of bored lately. Amazingly, there hasn't been much going on these days in the way of villainous activity."

Shadow took a seat in the one dry chair across from Sonic and watched irritably as the blue hedgehog ignored the towel and leaned back further in the chair.

"That's too bad. So you decided to dedicate your remaining energy to turning my room into a pigsty?" Shadow retorted, crossing his arms across his chest. Sonic pulled the towel off of his head and grinned.

"Because I care that much about you," he replied sweetly, earning a dark glare from the Ultimate Lifeform. Sonic laughed and tossed the towel aside. "Come on, Shads. One of these days you're gonna have to lighten up a bit. This dark, broody thing you got going on was interesting for a while, but I'm starting to wonder about your mental stability dude."

"My 'mental stability' is just fine," Shadow snapped. He turned away from Sonic and returned his crimson gaze to the storm brewing outside. His expression grew more thoughtful as he watched the rain and listened to the dull drone of the thunder rolling over the hills. "So what, you were just out for a run in the middle of a storm?"

Sonic nodded, but Shadow didn't see it. He was intently watching the window for any flashes of lighting that might occur. He also didn't see the way Sonic examined his chiseled silhouette every time a bolt of lightning did strike.

"It wasn't raining when I started, but yeah... Running clears my head. It lets me think about things that I'm usually too busy to think about."

Shadow smirked then, and nodded curtly.

"I'd imagine that doesn't happen too often."

"Nope."

A thick silence fell between them, but neither hedgehog seemed to mind it. Shadow kept his gaze on the window, engrossing himself in the splendour of nature. Not once did he spare a glance at Sonic, who couldn't seem to tear his gaze away from the black hedgehog. He was trying to figure out if the conclusion he had come to while on his run was accurate, or simply something that had manifested itself out of fatigue. But as he stared at Shadow's features, he began to realize with a sickly dread that it was as he had feared. He loved him. In fact, he loved everything about Shadow. The way he glared at Sonic every time he did something that the Ultimate Lifeform didn't approve of, like tracking mud all the way across the middle of his rug; the moodiness that always accompanied him, even when his mood was actually somewhat upbeat. And his eyes... those crimson orbs that had seen so much devastation, yet somehow managed to hold a certain degree of warmth amid the melancholy events of his life. Sonic could joke and tease all he wanted, but in earnest he wouldn't change a single thing about Shadow even if given the opportunity because if he changed anything then Shadow would become someone else, a stranger. That was the last thing he wanted. Shadow was a complex personality, that was for sure, but Sonic liked persevering, and waiting to see if Shadow would carelessly expose an emotion that no one else would normally be allowed to see. There were rare moments when this actually happened, and Sonic considered himself lucky to be able to witness a smile, or a laugh. Seeing it made his day infinitely brighter. So this was what it felt like, to love unconditionally and totally. His fear didn't dissipate however, and he knew why. He wasn't ashamed of how he felt; he could never be embarrassed of that. Sonic had always been proud to be himself, and pretending to be something he wasn't was about as likely to happen as seeing a killer whale walk on land. No, he was afraid of something much worse than that.

Rejection.

If he were to be rejected by Shadow, he wasn't sure how he would survive. Maybe if he kept himself busy, he wouldn't be tempted to think about it. But during lulls in action like today, there would be no escaping it. Being rejected would be like receiving a punch to the face every time he saw Shadow and Sonic wasn't sure if he could endure that kind of pain, especially if it happened every time he met the guy. He would never stop loving that moody hedgehog no matter what, and that would just make things worse if he were turned down by him. Though it was killing him to keep his feelings a secret, he was uncertain about the whole thing. He was so troubled by these thoughts that he was about to actually excuse himself and leave, but Shadow stopped him with a single comment.

"Do you think I don't understand what love is?"

Sonic swallowed his anxiety and picked his words carefully.

"What do you mean?"

"Just because I choose not to show any sensitivity doesn't mean I don't know the feeling," Shadow replied. He turned to look Sonic in the eyes, and his stare was intent. "Maria meant more to me than anything else in existence. When she died, a part of me departed with her. I never thought I would find anything to fill that void, and so I made a decision to isolate these feelings of love and compassion so that I would never again feel the amount of loss that I felt when she left me."

Shadow's expression gradually grew more distant as he talked. His eyes reflected the amount of loneliness and loss that he kept locked away inside for so many years, and Sonic briefly wondered what had brought on this sudden surge of emotion before allowing himself to be drawn completely into the black hedgehog's gaze.

"I kinda figured it was like that," Sonic replied.

"Did you...?" Shadow asked. He flashed one of his rare, genuine smiles that made Sonic's insides flip. "Hm. I guess you're more perceptive than I thought."

Sonic smiled back and shrugged nonchalantly.

"I do my best."

Shadow looked him over quickly and raised his eyebrows. The blue hedgehog was no longer dripping all over his things, but he could tell that his fur was still slightly damp. He was starting to pick up a wet dog kind of smell from him, and Shadow let out an exasperated sigh. That old saying did ring true in the end – you could take the hedgehog out of the rain, but you couldn't take the rain out of the hedgehog.

"So are you somewhat dry now," he asked, tongue in cheek, "or should I bring a fan over here?"

Sonic blinked twice and looked down at himself. He didn't feel wet; he didn't even feel very damp. He warily sniffed himself and wrinkled his nose up.

"Ugh, I hate that wet dog smell. Mind if I use your shower quickly Shads?" he asked.

"If you didn't want to smell like a wet dog, you should have used the towel I threw at your head earlier," Shadow stated dryly, crossing his legs at the knee and pointing at the towel lying unused on the floor.

"Thanks buddy," Sonic replied with a flippant salute, zooming into the bathroom and slamming the door.

"I didn't say yes to that, blue hedgehog!"

Shadow shook his head and let another sigh out, gently applying pressure as he rubbed his temples. Why was it that every time Sonic visited him he felt like a tornado had just run over him, and yet he actually found pleasure in it...? Every new interaction he had with the blue blur baffled him more and more. There were so many bits and pieces to fit together, and while there was an infinite amount of quirks in Sonic's character that infuriated Shadow to no end, he had observed along the way that Sonic also had just as many good qualities that the black hedgehog found himself loving every time he witnessed them. It was an odd, familiar feeling... but it was a bit different at the same time, something he had thought he would never experience again. To fully describe the essence of what it was as a whole would have been impossible. The closest he could get to describing it was like combining the fondness and tenderness that he held for Maria and the passionate joy of rivalry that he shared with Sonic on a regular basis together until it formed a special brand of love that couldn't be replicated by any other person, and that was just a vague description. Then it hit him like a ten-ton palette of bricks. That was it – he was _in love_.

Shadow didn't know which fact was more alarming; the fact that he had somehow managed to love again after all of the heartbreak he had gone through with Maria , or that he had caught himself loving _the _Sonic the hedgehog. How could he tell Sonic that he was in love with him after divulging his reason for isolating his more affectionate feelings from the rest of his being? Could he even love anyone properly anymore?

Shadow frowned and leaned his head heavily on his hand while he stared out the window. Sonic had probably got the impression that he chose not to love anyone anymore. It was true that every rose has its thorn and Shadow had been pricked one time too many, but he didn't want to sacrifice the tiniest glimpse he had of future happiness in order to protect himself from getting hurt again. What good was protecting yourself if you were miserable while doing it? He was tired of being despondent. He wanted to live life to the fullest; he wanted to feel joy, to feel love. For years he had watched young couples walking down the street holding hands, mothers and daughters laughing together and he _wanted _that so badly. He wanted to see how it felt to hold someone else's hand in his own and know without a doubt that they really were his. The moodiness had become a vital part of him, and he had a feeling that it wouldn't go away no matter how much love was involved. But that didn't mean that he couldn't try to reach for something better. Shadow lifted his gaze to the sky and noticed that the storm was slowly dissipating. He could pick out small patches of blue randomly interspersed between the torn patchworks of dark clouds. For some strange reason, this sight caused him to smile. Black and blue, huh...

"Hey Shads, was that like the only towel in your entire bathroom? 'Cause I can't find another one!" Sonic shouted through the closed bathroom door.

Shadow turned to look at the towel lying there on the floor. The smile never left his face. In fact, he allowed himself to chuckle. It was decided then. He was going to tell Sonic. He was going to take a chance and hope that they could be something more. They were just two storms in each other's lives, and if they had to wreak havoc then they could always do it together. Two storms are always better than one.


End file.
